Affliction is a piece that reflects difficult events that took place in the year 2011. In Isaiah 61:1, there is a promise given by God to give His people to exchange beauty for ashes. Though there is sorrow and pain in life, there are glimpses of what will come, which is eternal peace and joy. This piece expresses the conflict between beauty, anxiety, and sadness.

This piece experiments with repetitive motifs and layers of harmonies that build throughout the piece. There are mysterious and somewhat suspenseful undertones of dissonance building throughout the first section of the piece. The second and third sections express a beauty mixed with sorrow. The intention was to take a simple melody and harmonize it in ways that are unpredictable.